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Scott Pelley Fired by CBS After Clash With Management; R&B Icon, Peabo Bryson Dies at 75; House Set to Hold Vote on Trump's Iran War Powers Today; Iran Attacks Kuwait's Airport, Killing at Least One Person; Trump Names Housing Official With No Intel Experience as Acting DNI; Tiny Homes Village for Unsheltered Vets Coming to Dallas; the World Health Organization Says There Have Been 344 Confirmed Cases of Ebola and 60 Deaths. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired June 03, 2026 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:30:00]

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: -- a joint company with Viacom, then it split, then it came back together, then it sold to paramount. He has been a steady voice throughout all of it. And so to see him come out this loud around this issue, it is very significant and it will have a huge impact on the morale, not just at "60 Minutes," but I believe, at the network writ large.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": So, Nick Bilton was brought in as Executive Producer less than a week ago. Do we know why he was chosen by Bari Weiss?

FISCHER: I think they're close personal friends. Bari used to live in Los Angeles. Nick is moving to New York for the job but he was based in Los Angeles for a long time. And Bari's orders from above appear to be, make sure that you are helping to digitize the network, modernize the network. Now, some people from the outside look at that and say are you using that as a cover to actually gain more editorial control over this network and to rein it in.

I have no way of necessarily proving that, but that's definitely the feeling on the outside and obviously, with Scott Pelley on the inside. So if you're Bari Weiss, who is the person you're going to hire to do that? It's someone you trust.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": To understand this story, it's important to read Bilton's dismissal letter of Pelley and Pelley's exit letter, and in it, Pelley not only says management told him to inject falsehoods and bias and unverified assertions, he also said that politicians have been invited to choose which correspondent interviews them.

He said how, in one case, involving one of his stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all. He paints a really bleak and chaotic picture of what has been going on lately at "60 Minutes."

FISCHER: I think there's a tension between how things have always been done and what the journalistic standards are at "60 Minutes" versus what new management sees as being the right path forward. So let's talk about the interview. One story that we've covered and others have covered was the Major Garrett interview with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel. There were reports that that interview was essentially handed to Major Garrett who is not a for (ph) correspondent over somebody like Lesley Stahl, who has more experience, and was trying to cover that story.

I think those incidents paint a picture of just complete disconnect between how things should be done or how things have been done in the past versus what new management thinks is appropriate and acceptable. And I don't know how you bridge those tensions, because new management is empowered by David Ellison who is the Chair of the entire company and some of these old anchors, who have been there for decades as has been the case with Scott Pelley, it does not appear as though their perspective is necessarily weighted the same way now as it was back in the old times.

SANCHEZ: Sarah Fischer, thanks so much for bringing that down for us. Appreciate it.

FISCHER: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, Acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche says the Justice Department is dropping the anti-weaponization fund. The president though is suggesting something different. We'll get into their remarks next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:37:22]

SANCHEZ: Now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. R&B legend, Peabo Bryson has passed away. His family announced that in a statement last night. He's known for his timeless R&B hits like "Feel the Fire" and "Can You Stop the Rain," along with his work in classic Disney duets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Peabo Bryson singing "A Whole New World."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: That duet with Regina Belle from the movie "Aladdin" won Bryson the second of back-to-back Grammy awards. Bryson was 75.

Plus, a bear hunt on right now inside a steel factory in Japan after a black bear attacked and hurt at least four people in the area. They're looking at security video capturing one of the attacks. The bear chases a factory worker and throws him to the ground. Fortunately, an SUV drives up and seems to scare the bear off.

Police say the bear attacked three other people. Fortunately, none of their injuries are life-threatening. It's now believed to be locked somewhere inside one of the factory buildings, but has not yet been caught. This is a growing problem in Japan where the Environment Ministry says a record 13 people have been killed in more than 230 bear attacks since last year.

And we have some terrifying video to show you out of Rio de Janeiro, showing the moment a woman fell through a manhole after being dropped off by a motorbike. You see, it just gives way, the cover does, as she steps on it. Thankfully, her driver saw it happen and ran over to help her, along with other nearby witnesses. She was pulled out by the fire department and is doing OK. Brianna?

KEILAR: Here in just a few hours, the House is set to take up a resolution to limit President Trump's war powers in Iran. And if it passes, it would be seen as a sharp rebuke to the president and his handling of the conflict. House Republican leaders abruptly canceled this vote back in May when it became clear they were on the verge of losing because of absences.

Right now, a fragile ceasefire is being further tested as Iran and the U.S. traded new strikes overnight. One of those Iranian strikes hitting Kuwait's airport killed one person and injured dozens of others. We're joined now by Democratic Congressman, Jason Crow of Colorado. He's a former Army Ranger and he sits on the House Intel and Armed Services committees.

Congressman, this vote, I mean, what do you think? Is this going to pass?

REP. JASON CROW, (D-CO) HOUSE INTEL AND ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEES: It might pass. I think it has a good chance of passing. We'll see what attendance on both sides of the aisle looks like.

[13:40:00]

You know, we came within one vote of it passing the last time we took the vote. But from my perspective, I don't care how many votes it takes, but I'll take a vote a day on this if I have to, more if I have to.

You know, this is our duty. It's not just our job. This is our duty under the Constitution to vote on issues of war and peace, to be held accountable for it, to make sure that we are doing right by our service members, right by the American people.

And this Republican-controlled Congress has turned its back up until this moment on that duty. So I'm here to do the job for them.

KEILAR: The resolution calls for immediate removal of troops engaged in hostilities. It does not appear to prevent the military from maintaining a troop presence in the region for defensive purposes. Could the administration just argue that all troops there are now there for defensive purposes? They kind of have essentially argued that already. You have Secretary Rubio on the Hill today saying the war is over.

CROW: What I want to do is I want to force them to have that debate. They might say that, right, because they have a long history of convoluted legal reasoning, of circular reasoning for their operations like the Caribbean strike, like their operation in Venezuela. Clearly, they are not hindered by the law and the Constitution.

So this is about exerting pressure. It's about taking votes. It's also about putting responsibility on my colleagues. I want the people in this building, in this Capitol, to take an up-or-down vote so that their constituents know where they stand on this, because I can tell you, the American people have had enough of endless conflict. They've had enough of spending trillions of dollars, of endless cycles of conflict in the Middle East. And this is one of the most partisan things in this nation right now.

Republicans and Democrats have had enough of it, which is actually why Donald Trump -- why he campaigned on this in his latest election, because he knew that, and he's turned his back on those folks. So it's about accountability. It's about people having to take a vote and being held accountable for where they stand.

KEILAR: How are you seeing these strikes, Iran hitting Kuwait? And this was a pretty significant strike with drones last night, including the airport. This is among the highest number injured in the region in an Iranian strike since the fighting began. Is it your understanding that the U.S. and Iran are still in a ceasefire after these attacks?

CROW: Well, this is a heck of a ceasefire based on these videos. I heard Marco Rubio the other day saying, this isn't a war. The war is over. And it just reminded me of my time in Iraq and Afghanistan, when I was sitting there patrolling the streets of Baghdad in 120-degree heat, taking sniper fire, having roadside bombs blow up, and people back in Washington saying, there's no war. This isn't a war.

Well, it sure felt like a war to me. And I can tell you, it sure feels like a war to the 50,000-plus U.S. service members that have to deal with air raids, that have to deal with these drone strikes. You know, a war by any other name in my book is still a war. You can't send people into conflict to fight and die without the Congress taking a vote, without the American people being put in the driver's seat, which is what it's all about here today.

KEILAR: And to that point, yesterday in front of the Senate, Secretary Rubio did say that Iran still has a lot of drones, which were obviously critical in this attack. What should the American people understand about the ability that gives Iran to wage a full- scale war?

CROW: What the American people should understand is, over the last three months, this administration has spent tens of billions of dollars to just reduce the number of drones and missiles that the Iranian regime has, but not to destroy their capacity. They still have a lot. The nuclear program or their capability to create a nuclear program still resides in pretty much its core capacity.

And now, this administration is desperately trying to get a peace deal that would simply put us back to where we were at the beginning of this war, back to negotiations, back to the negotiation table, back to opening the Straits of Hormuz, which is where we were in February. But there are American service members dead, hundreds wounded, tens of billions of dollars spent. Our alliances and our partners and our allies have been pushed away from us. This has been an unmitigated disaster by almost every metric.

KEILAR: Well, I want to talk to you about Bill Pulte. You are on the Intel Committee, as I mentioned. And yesterday, the president named him. He's a housing official, and he doesn't have intel experience. Named him as the Acting Director of National Intelligence.

This is a position that was created after 9/11. I don't have to tell you or any of your colleagues up there on the Hill whose lives have been so shaped by the events of that day. What are your concerns about having someone with his experience or lack of experience in that role?

[13:45:00]

CROW: Well, I have two main concerns. The first is that he doesn't have experience and doesn't understand how intelligence works. He's never served in this role and this position, as you pointed out, Brianna, was created after 9/11 to be the hub of our intelligence networking and services. So after 9/11, we realized we had all these agencies collecting intelligence, but they weren't always talking to each other.

And the reason we didn't see the 9/11 attacks is because we had pieces of that puzzle, but we weren't putting the puzzle fully together. And that's the job of the director of national intelligence, to ensure we're putting those puzzle pieces together. But if you have no idea how it works, if you don't have one day of experience in that position, you can't do that job, which puts us all at risk.

And that's why the law actually requires that this position, the director of national intelligence, is that the DNI must have experience to serve in this role. That's number one. Number two, Bill Pulte has been an attack dog for Donald Trump. He's a Trump loyalist, and he's known for seeking vengeance on Donald Trump's perceived political enemies.

And as we go into an election season where I am deeply concerned about our intelligence agencies being used and politicized in the midterm elections, somebody like Bill Pulte in this position simply exacerbates those concerns for me.

KEILAR: We're also hearing from Reuters reporting that there's this ongoing turf war over intel sharing between the CIA and DNI over the past year. And one of the precipitating themes of 9/11 was a failure to share intel, a failure to connect the dots between these intel agencies. What are your concerns about that right now? I mean, even separate from Bill Pulte, but also in light of his appointment.

CROW: There is so much going on in the world right now. As you know, Brianna, there are so many dangers, terrorist dangers, cyber dangers, nation state dangers and our adversaries. There are dozens of things that keep me awake at night. And we need, now more than ever, the best and the brightest in the business.

I don't care whether they're Republicans or Democrats. We need the best people in intelligence and national security, in these roles to make sure that we are putting the puzzle pieces together. Nothing is falling between the cracks and we are protecting Americans, and that simply is not happening. There's infighting. There's political territorial battling between these agencies.

There are incompetent people with no experience being put in these agencies. It is gravely dangerous right now.

KEILAR: Congressman Jason Crow, thank you so much for being with us.

CROW: Thank you.

KEILAR: Still ahead, the city of Dallas is giving new hope to homeless veterans in their community. We're going to show you how, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:52:42]

KEILAR: On this week's Home Front, the fight against veteran homelessness. The Dallas City Council just voted to transfer vacant city-owned land to a non-profit organization. It's planning to build a neighborhood of tiny homes for unhoused vets, and this is a rendering of what it will look like.

The group behind it is called the "Veterans Community Project," and this Dallas site will be the seventh village that its teams have built. Co-founder of the group and Marine veteran, Bryan Meyer is joining us now to talk a little bit about this. All right, Brian, as I said, Dallas is actually the seventh city with a tiny house village like this. What's the immediate impact for veterans who end up staying here?

BRYAN MEYER, CO-FOUNDER, VETERANS COMMUNITY PROJECT: You know, first of all, thank you for having me. And the immediate impact for the veterans we serve is really what we find to be a renewed sense of dignity. These homes are, even though they're smaller, they're built just like your home or my home, so when they move in, we are instantly able to provide them with on-site wraparound case management. They have their own front door, their own bathroom, and really just providing that dignity of home, we feel like is the single largest impact we provide.

KEILAR: And there is community. You can't avoid it, right? When these homes are close together, there's also sort of a gathering space, and I saw that there is a dog park. So talk to us about --

MEYER: Yeah.

KEILAR: -- the services and the kind of connection that you see between this and mental health outcomes.

MEYER: Absolutely. You know, we always say Veterans Community Project, community is in the middle name for a reason. That's not only because we rely on the support of the community, you know, philanthropically and things like that, but also the community that we create with inside each of these villages. You know, everybody living there has this same shared experience of military service, so that creates instant connection. Then we provide on-site case management. We bring in other service providers. We have that dog park, the gathering spaces, barbecue pits, because we want them to feel like that they are no longer alone.

They have their home, and the community is really wrapping their arms around them, including their other neighbors, in order to get them back on their feet and find them a long-term permanent housing solution.

[13:55:00]

MEYER: You are one piece of the puzzle here when it comes to solving veteran homelessness. What else do you think that policy makers, whether it is, you know, local in Dallas or other cities, or nationally here in Washington, need to consider to help these folks?

MEYER: Yeah, I think at a local level, we really try to get across the fact that veteran homelessness often seems like such a larger issue or a federal government only issue or V.A. issue. And what we're trying to do with projects like these is empower local municipalities, local leaders, local decision makers to say, look, we don't have to wait on somebody else to fix this. We can fix this.

We don't have to wait on somebody else to come in. I mean, down in Dallas, it was Councilman Maxie Johnson, who was really a huge advocate of bringing us there, but also philanthropic people in the community that wanted to support this and wanted to say, at a local level, we can fix this issue.

Now, at a more national level, states have been really great about helping us fund these things. And we are in active conversations with federal government and the V.A. They're our partners. We're one piece of the puzzle. It takes a lot of different pieces to address this issue.

KEILAR: Yeah, and you have to raise, is that right, $15 million in total for this particular project? That's not always easy. How are you going about this? What kind of fundraising support are you looking for?

MEYER: You're absolutely right. We do have to raise $15 million for it. It's really important to us that we stay funded privately. It allows us to do some really unique things that contributes to -- we have an 85 percent positive transition rate. And we believe a lot of the private funding, the things we're able to do with that, contribute to that.

So I think that what we've seen is communities wrap their arms around it and stand up and say like, hey, I want to do more than like stand up and clap for a veteran at a ball game. I want to do something really meaningful. And this is a meaningful way to do that. You can get your hands on it, contribute financially, and basically take care of veterans in your community. KEILAR: It's really fascinating, Bryan, which is why we wanted to have you on to talk about it. It's just so interesting to see what you're doing there in Dallas and other cities. Bryan Meyer, thank you so much.

MEYER: Thank you so much for the opportunity.

KEILAR: Boris?

SANCHEZ: CNN is going to the center of the Ebola outbreak, where the full scale of the outbreak remains unclear. The World Health Organization says there have been 344 confirmed cases of the virus and 60 deaths. The number of suspected cases has actually been revised down significantly from 1,000 to 116.

CNN's Clarissa Ward filed this report from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We're at a hospital in the rural community of Rwampara. This area has been one of the hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak.

WARD: So at the moment, the hospital has 17 suspected Ebola patients. They're rapidly running out of capacity. But if you look over here, you can see a huge amount of activity as people from the community and the NGO, ALIMA, are furiously working to erect these Ebola treatment centers.

The doctor from ALIMA told us they're hoping that these facilities will be completed in the next two to three days. And that really is going to be a game changer for this rural hospital because it will give them the capacity to receive another 34 Ebola patients.

And it's really interesting. If you take a look at the way these treatment centers are being built, they are incorporating a lot of the lessons that have been learned from previous Ebola outbreaks. So I want to show you what each room here looks like. You've got the tap outside, of course. Make sure that people are washing their hands the whole time.

Each room has its own bed. Each patient has, crucially, of course, as well, their own toilet. But the really interesting part is right here. This paper will come off, and it's transparent glass, which allows the doctors to get up close and see the patients without endangering themselves. This is what it looks like from the doctor's perspective. This is the entrance they come into.

They can see through, see the patients. It's pretty incredible. It's interesting because despite the fact that this community has been ravaged by this virus, the mood here among these people, who are all local, who are taking pride in the fact that they are participating in building and contributing and protecting their community. They have been singing, they have been laughing, they have been joking around and honestly, against the backdrop --